To thwart tomorrow

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.

Our party made their way up the mountain to deliver the package when they met another grey cloak. They saw a platoon of zombies helping to guard a barricade across the road. They fought the barricade and stormed the sturdy gate, beating back its defenders. Continuing up the road they were spotted by a guard tower. They rushed it taking heavy fire from the skilled hobgoblin archers. Once again they proved triumphant and held the guard tower against the rest of the camp that tried to storm them.

After defeating the guard towers, the adventurers searched the buildings of the mine camp to make sure no other enemies were left. They found some treasure in an administration building and then entered the dark entrance to the mine.

At the end of a dark tunnel, the party found some guards playing dice. The guards commanded a force of zombies. Talon attempted to confront the guards, but the bard Thedo opened fire on them in a surprise attack. Combat ensued and the small guard force quickly fell.

The guards had been protecting the top of an elevator into the mine. Horses were used to provide motive power for the elevator. After unsuccessful efforts to puzzle out the mechanism, the party decided to simply hook up the horses and try. Alec showed sympathy for the plight of the horses, but gently led them into harness anyway.

After trial and error, the party discovered how to lower the elevator. Alec and Talon descended into the mine to see if there was a lever or mechanism at the bottom to allow the elevator to rise again. They found none. After being brought back up, Alec figured out that if they untied the rope from the winch to which the horses were harnessed, they could drop the rope onto the elevator platform and haul themselves up and down. The plan was followed and the party found themselves on the lowest level of the mine, a dimly-lit tunnel leading into the depths of the mine.

Following the tunnel, the party heard the cries of people begging for mercy and the harsh tones of their captors. The party rushed forward into a large room in which slaves were about to be sacrificed by priests. Guards rushed to confront the party, fighting to keep the party trapped in the tunnel while the sacrifices continued.

After furious fighting in which the cleric Armun and the bard Thedo called upon the gods to keep the fighters from grievous injury, the party was able to penetrate the line of guards and take the battle to the priests. The combat was quickly over after that.

The slaves, captured villagers, had been freed. It was time for the party to learn more of where the original owners of the mine might be and who was behind these schemes.

After rescuing the hostages, the party chose to send only a scouting force deeper into the mine while the rest of the party remained behind to heal wounds and keep the escape route out of the mine secure.

The scouting party, two fighters and a wizard, reached a guarded room in which 4 glowing balls and a portal gave off an eerie light. The scouts quickly moved to attack the guards, but during the combat, a demon emerged from the portal and rushed to attack the party. Dispatching the guards and demon, the party explored the room. They found that it had four glowing blue globes and a portal.

Smashing one of the globes caused a shaking and rumbling that was disquieting given that the party was at the bottom of a mine. Testing the portal indicated that it was safe to enter and Talon stepped through. He found himself in a dark ravine. Off in the distance, he could hear the cries of demons like the one that the scouts had fought. He returned back through the portal.

Deciding to move forward, the scouting party opened doors off of the portal room. Inside they found a chamber in which a summoning ritual taking place. Cultists chanted while a high priest performed the ritual over a pile of bones. Two glowing red globes in the corners of the chamber were guarded by demons. As the characters watched, the ritual was completed, restoring the dead demon over whose bones the ritual was taking place.

After some discussion, it was decided to enter the room, rush the red globes and destroy them, then regroup at the altar at the far end of the chamber.

The scouting party succeeded in smashing the globes, causing a rumble and the sound of crashing stones outside the chamber. The party succeeded in killing the high priest, who was himself a half demon. As he died, the priest cried to the demon, “Father!”

The wizard decimated the cultists with a single blast while the fighters struggled valiantly with the guardian demons as well as the summoned demon. One fighter fell. The second fighter, realizing the cause was lost, told the wizard to flee and get help. The last sight the wizard had of the room was of the second fighter collapsing beneath the attacks of the demons.

After returning from the mine to the manor house of the Gray Cloaks, the party debriefed the organization on their adventures. No real interest was shown until mention was made of the demon that the party defeated.

The party rested and resupplied in the stores surrounding the manor house. The party of two that the core party met, Honor Ravenreaper and Thundarr, explored the area. Though welcome at the manor, Thundarr made camp outside the manor in the forest, preferring to alone with nature than with other human beings. The Gray Cloaks kept a closer eye on Honor as she explored possible…business…opportunities.

Meanwhile, Talon Serenity spent time in the library seeking out clues to the location of the parts of the Silver Dragon Regalia [[:Silver Dragon Regalia]]

One day, the wizard Essler received a message from his old school of magic, White Lotus. Essler was being invited to give a lecture at the school. He sent back word that he agreed and then approached his companions to accompany him. Both Talon and Alec agreed. Honor demurred and remained behind.

Meanwhile, Thundarr was approached by a dwarven shaman, Asad Odero, who claimed to have had a vision that he would accompany the party on a dangerous quest. “I have seen me walkin’ de pat’ wit’ dose companions of yours, mon.” When Essler approached Thundarr, Thundarr chose to remain behind, sending Asad in his place.

At the school, Essler and his companions were greeted as honored guests. They were given the opportunity to rest and relax before being shown around the grounds. Essler was given the opportunity to judge a practice duel of wizardry. As the duel began, however, practice dummies around the grounds came to life and attacked the party. The party, caught flat-footed in little or no armor and with few weapons, fought valiantly, finally defeating the dummies.

Investigating why the statues came to life, the party was told that a book detailing the spell used to keep the practice dummies from being destroyed by magic was in the school library. The party returned to their quarters and donned armor and weapons and headed to the library.

In the library, the party was trapped when a door in the library slammed shut behind them. Spirits in the library attacked. The combat was hard, but the spirits were defeated. One of the spirits dropped a book when it was vanquished.

On their way back from the school of magic, the party split up. Talon Serenity had business to complete and headed northward. Asad Odero, the dwarven shaman, decided he’d had enough of the company of the living for a while and headed southward. The three remaining members, Essler the wizard, Armun the cleric, and Alec Starblood the fighter, continued back toward the Greycloak headquarters.

After traveling for a couple of days, the three party members entered the village of Havermere. They saw a commotion at the Dizzy Monk pub and headed inside to see the cause.

They found a pair of wounded adventurers, Sarag, a paladin longtooth shifter, and Aelar, a silent elvish monk. Tending to their wounds was Luthan, a Graythicket elf whose tribe had been driven away by a mysterious creature like none they had seen before. Armun healed the two wounded adventurers and the party agreed to help drive away the creature that the Graythickets had named an “owlbear.”

Approaching the area where the Luthan directed them to find the owlbear, the party met a gnome named Orva. Orva had been trapped in a tree at the edge of a blasted and barren area patrolled by the owlbear. Orva had accidentally passed through a portal and been chased into the tree by the owlbear. She begged for the party’s help.

The party encountered the owlbear and a fierce fight began. Soon after the fight began, a group of bird-like kenku leading a cockatrice attacked both the owlbear and the party. Essler was able to scatter the kenku, but the cockatrice pulled free and attacked Essler, biting him and petrifying him.

The party was able to defeat the owlbear and the cockatrice, but at the apparent cost of Essler’s life. Fortunately, the paladin Sarag had heard of a recipe for a poultice that could be used to restore petrified characters if administered soon enough. The party dragged Essler’s stoned form back to town to make up the poultice. Their efforts were ultimately successful and Essler was restored.

Today I have met a group of the legendary Grey Cloaks. I have heard of them before, a group brought together to foster justice in the wildlands. They showed great skill but like Sarag they lack harmony. One of them almost died. THe wizard called Essler. THey seemed more concerned with the material things then their companion. It does not fortell good things for the upcomming troubles. Like Sarag, they are great warriors and fighters for good but I have yet to find the great leaders that our peoples will need if the prophesy is as foretold. I shall travel with them for a while to see what guidance I can provide. Maybe none but they seem worth some effort. Maybe they can help Sarag see beyond the length of his sword. He is growing well but I am not sure it will be quick enough.

(Adapted from Heart of the Forbidden Forge by Luke Johnson, Dungeon 167)

The characters were doing their daily tasks at the Vineyard when a wounded rider approached the vineyard. Essler sounded the alarm and rushed to the aid of the rider. The rider turned out to be a young apprentice wizard, Alele Hirebrand. She was tended by Aelar Greenbriar.

After Alele awoke, she told the reason for her journey here. She and another young woman, Jelia, were apprentices to Lady Selethia Mornshadow, an artificer of note in the town of Serenity to the north of the vineyard. Jelia had discovered documents telling of a Hestian forge built during the Creation War one hundred years ago. Jelia hid the documents, but Alele discovered them while “cleaning” and brought them to the attention of Lady Selethia. Selethia realized the importance of the documents and tried to question Jelia. However, Jelia was not to be found. Some of her clothes were gone as well a stockpile of gold pieces that Lady Selethia kept on hand. The worried Lady Selethia had Alele take the documents to the vineyard to give them to Sir Stephan D’Art. But she was attacked and the documents taken.

Alele had read the documents and remembered the location of the forge. She told the characters who quickly formed a party and headed north to the forge located in the mountains of Olara. Along the way, the party passed through the town of Spellforge, whose well-kept exterior hid a darker secret. They passed through the paranoid city-state of Nortrel where they were questioned and their luggage searched in case they were spies from Nortrel’s rival city-state of Montrel.

Finally, the party reached the location of the forge. They found a ruined complex at the top of a hill. The entrance had been collapsed, forcing them to find another way inside. A cave in the hillside below the complex gave them entrance, but it was guarded by hobgoblins who fought the party to the death.

The characters made their way deeper into the forge complex, encountering mechanical golems that were clearly jury-rigged to be barely functional. They also encountered the ghost of the artificer Hestius who had built the forge.

Hestius warned the party that they would never reach the forge. Even if they did, he said, Calamachia would stop them. Hestius left them, but released a bone wyrm and swarms of tomb mites to harass the characters.

After defeating the undead, the characters, weary and wounded, trudged onward into the forge complex.

The party continued its exploration of the Forge Complex, following the trail of Jelia and Valsath. Traveling through an all-too-quiet corridor, the party reached closed double doors. Opening them, the party found themselves confronting a number of hobgoblins who were just finishing arming themselves to ambush the party. Combat ensued in which the party was triumphant.

Carefully exploring the room, Aelar found a secret door. She picked the hidden lock with ease revealing a shaft with metal rungs on the side that led down to a sloping tunnel barely large enough for the barbarian Thundarr to crawl through.

Upon emerging, the party discovered themselves on a catwalk over a chamber full of lava. At the other end of the catwalk stood the shade of Hestius, the artificer who had created the Hestian Forge, and two mechanical drakes.

“I warned to leave while you had the chance,” said Hestius. “Nothing you can do can stop my Calamachia from her work. You will not get past me. Turn back now or die.”

“Nuts,” muttered Alec Starblood and he raced forward over the catwalk. Thirty feet below, bubbled lava, the heat making the room almost unbearable. A grate about 10 feet above the lava showed burnt humanoid remains of those who had fallen from the catwalk, a dire warning to the party.

The paladin Sarag and the barbarian Thundarr followed Alec across the catwalk. As Hestius saw the party charging, he cried out an enchantment and raised his hands high. To the horror of the party, a gout of flame burst from the lava and poured over Aelar. She cried out in pain, blasted back by the impact. Aelar writhed in pain as the flames continued to lick at her, burning her flesh. She managed to fight through the pain, her training and discipline helping her.

Coldly angry, Sarag cast a blessing on one of Alec’s swords which began glowing softly with a peaceful radiance. Alec charged forward, but a trap door on the catwalk opened. Only Alec’s nimbleness kept him from tumbling to the lava below. Aelar recovered enough to leap the gap and attack Hestius. She was rewarded by Hestius’ howl of pain and the shade moved off to the other side of the trapdoor, unwittingly putting him in reach of the rest of the party. But Aelar became the object of the drake’s instincts to protect Hestius and was raked by their claws adding to her wounds.

As the living flames of forge wisps rose out of the lava to attack the party, Sarag laid into Hestius with a mighty blow that caused the shade to reel in pain. Aelar recovered enough to strike Hestius with a flurry of blows driven by her pain. Essler followed up with a blast that finally destroyed the shade. Hestius cried out, “No, no! You cannot possibly do this to me!.” He disappeared in a swirl of dark energy. A ring clattered the catwalk where Hestius had been. Automatically, Alec picked it up and put it in his pocket and returned to the battle.

With Hestius gone, the party made quick work of the drakes and wisps and paused to recover and ready themselves for the final fight.

Important points:

Hestius appears to be finally laid to rest.

He dropped a ring and Alec picked it up.

Aelar is badly hurt, her hair burnt off and her skin cracked and burnt. Even with the magic of healing potions or clerical magic, she will probably be horribly scarred for life.